By Rich McKay
(Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard has joined a search for a small airplane with 10 people aboard that went missing along Alaska’s west coast during a flight to Nome a day earlier.
The Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft was reported missing en route from Unalakleet about 4 p.m. local time on Thursday, according to a dispatch posted on the website of the Alaska State Troopers in Nome, which is more than 500 miles northwest of Anchorage.
The 150-mile flight from Unalakleet and Nome traverses the Norton Sound, part of the Bering Sea.
Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska office, told the media that the NTSB was aware of the overdue plane and monitoring the situation.
The incident comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of air safety in the United States. NTSB investigators are probing two deadly crashes in recent days: the midair collision of a passenger jet and U.S Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people and medical jet crash in Philadelphia that killed seven.
The Nome Volunteer Fire Department was conducting a ground search for the missing plane, it said on its Facebook page, adding that a local hospital was on standby to receive casualties. It asked that local residents and families not form their own search parties due to poor weather and visibility.
The fire department said on Friday that the National Guard has also joined the search using a C-130 aircraft but found nothing so far.
“The plane is equipped with specialized equipment for search and rescue that enables them to locate objects and people through no-visibility conditions,” the department said.
On Thursday evening, light snow and freezing drizzle were falling at the Nome Airport, with poor visibility, the National Weather Service said.
The aircraft was operated by Bering Air, based in Nome. It serves 30 communities, according to its website. A spokesperson for the company could not immediately be reached by Reuters.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Mark Porter)
